


Christmas Pride - A What if it's Us One Shot

by TeacherLady215



Category: What If It's Us - Becky Albertalli & Adam Silvera
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:53:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28296342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TeacherLady215/pseuds/TeacherLady215
Summary: Ben and Arthur Decorate their Christmas Tree together.
Relationships: Ben Alejo/Arthur Seuss
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	Christmas Pride - A What if it's Us One Shot

Ben- December 22nd 2023

I slide my key in the lock of our apartment as I return home from The Strand and when I open the door, it’s like Christmas has exploded in my apartment. My eyes go wide as I spot Arthur sitting cross legged in the middle of the floor detangling Christmas lights with a look of consternation on his face. As I move into the apartment and close the door lightly behind me, he looks up, a little surprised.

“Oh, hey babe,” he smiles sheepishly.

“Hey Art, what’s goin’ on?” I ask, coming around the corner to see packages of garland and ornaments splayed out on the counter. He has a small apartment-size tree set up in front of the patio sliders but that seems to be as far as he’s gotten.

“I’m decorating for Christmas!” he says proudly. “We always did the Menorah and Hannukah thing, so I’ve never done it, but I googled some things and ran to Target and here we are!”

I smile at his slightly crazed look as I slide my bag onto the stool and lay my jacket over it before going over and crossing my legs to drop down and sit in front of him. I shake my head and hook one finger into the collar of his t-shirt pulling him toward me and catching his lips in a soft kiss. I rest my forehead on his and nuzzle my nose against his as he sighs. “I love you, you wonderful man.” 

“I just want to make it special for our first Christmas together…” he says, pulling back, his eyes growing sad. “Not being able to go spend Hannukah with my dad… I’m just trying to get into the holiday spirit. Mom was really great at it; making the different foods and having a special gift for each of the days.” I nod and bend one knee so I can rest my elbow on it and take his face in my hand, lightly caressing his cheek as he leans into my touch and continues. “We didn’t do much of anything last year here and I didn’t want to let our first Christmas married pass by the same way. I want to start building our own traditions,” he says softly.

I pull my bottom lip between my teeth and nod. “That sounds amazing. I’m sorry I didn’t even think about celebrating Hannukah, Arthur. You should have said something…” I say, remorseful.

He shakes his head and rests his hand on my knee. “I know you’ve been busy and stressed at work, Ben. I didn’t want to add to that with an 8-day long holiday.”

I sigh heavily. “I want to build our own traditions, too, babe, but I want them to represent both of us. Next year, we celebrate both, okay?” I insist.

One side of Arthur’s lips quirk into a half smile as he nods. “Okay.”

I press a kiss to his forehead and then back up, looking back over all of the supplies he’s gathered and ask, “Do you want some help?”

He sighs and holds up the tangle of lights in front of him, “Yes, please.”

I chuckle and take them from him. With a couple of strategic pulls, I have them unwound and laid out straight. He looks at me in awe and just shakes his head as we stand together, each holding on end of the strand of lights and take them to the tree. I plug in the one end and we begin passing the lights around the tree from the bottom to the top and once we settle the end of the strand in among the highest branches, we step back to look at our work. Arthur notices a hole and adjusts a small portion of lights to a lower branch and then steps back again.

“Looks good babe,” I say, resting an arm around his shoulders.

He smiles. “Time for ornaments!”

As he begins to open boxes of rainbow ornaments, I pull out my phone and cue up a playlist of Christmas hits, to play while we decorate. Arthur immediately begins to sing along with Ariana Grande’s Santa Tell Me as his hips swing on his way to the tree with the box of red ornaments he just opened. I smile wide as I grab the box of orange bulbs and follow him, giving his butt a love tap. He gasps and looks at me with surprise. “You can’t just swing that around in front of me with all of the gay sass in your body and not expect me to indulge just a little,” I tell him matter-of-factly with a smirk. He smiles and we begin to carefully place the ornaments in rainbow order in a swirl around the tree together. Once we have finished and gotten rid of all of the packages, there is one flat white box remaining on the counter and I pick it up and ask him, “What’s this, Art?”

He comes over, sitting on one of the stools and quietly says, “Open it.” His eyes shine as he smiles, and I do as he says. Inside is a white plastic star with Alejo scrawled across it in a swirly script. “It rotates through the rainbow colors. I figured we should go with all the gay.”

I smile widely and lean down to kiss him. “I love it, baby,” I say when I pull back. “Come on, let’s put it on together.”

We take it to the tree, and I settle it on top of the tree with our last name facing out while Arthur plugs it into the string of lights and it begins to flash in each of the rainbow colors in turn. We stand back to observe our handiwork and I go over and turn off the lights. When I return to Arthur and wrap my arms around him from behind, settling my chin on his shoulder, he pulls in a shaky breath. I turn my face and press a few light kisses to Arthur’s cheek, holding him tighter. “It’s beautiful, Art,” I say softly.

“Yeah,” he whispers. “My mom would have loved it…” He sniffles and turns in my arms, burying his face in my chest as I press him tightly to me.

My fingers make their way into his hair and my lips are by his ear whispering, “Yes, she would have. I know she’s looking down on us and she’s so proud of you, babe. So proud.”

He nods as he quietly cries into the fabric of my hoodie. He takes a couple of deep breaths and pulls his head up so I can brush tears from his cheeks. “Sorry…” he whispers.

“Never be sorry for sharing your grief. Your grief is my grief, Arthur,” I assure him, pressing a kiss to his forehead. “These times of the year are going to be hard for a long time, but I’m right here for you every step of the way.”

He nods and lifts up to kiss me on the lips.

“Merry Christmas, Ben,” he says, lovingly looking into my eyes.

“Feliz Navidad, Arturo,” I whisper with a smile, earning one in return.


End file.
